Question No. 3: What will we prioritize post-pandemic?
Q: Will there be a change in how and what people prioritize in their daily lives after the pandemic is over?
—Anne
Perspective #1: DENNY
Disclaimer: The following is Jean’s rough attempt at a translation of Denny’s response, given to her originally over the phone in Korean. Though Denny is capable of responding directly, he prefers to avoid the headache of trying and failing to effectively convey his thoughts in English for this question.
Here is the spirit of Denny’s response, as interpreted by Jean:
Dear Anne,
“After the pandemic, people will be more isolated, having adjusted to the norm of wearing masks. Contact will become harder, such as getting together. This will happen organically.”
“Discrimination will get worse. Because of Trumpism, many white people see America as a country for white people. Trump was the last resistance, but failed in getting re-elected. If Trump had won, white people may have succeeded in keeping and maintaining their majority. Since Trump failed, that will be harder.”
“With Biden, there’s still anti-Asian discrimination and racism. This is all because of Trump.”
“It’s becoming harder for Asian people. Harder to get along with anyone. Even on trains, they can’t sit close to other people and are being shunned. All the Korean newspapers are covering this.”
“Trump said it’s a China virus, without even providing proof. So the issue is getting larger. If you remember WW2, they had Japanese internment camps for all Japanese Americans. This is a similar kind of thing, blaming all Asian people for the coronavirus.”
“So you have to be careful, when you are on the road, out in public. Not all folks are like this, but there are extremists. So there are incidents. Everyday, the Korean newspaper covers new anti-Asian hate crimes, crimes against Koreans, but there’s so much more than what’s reported. 90% of incidents don’t get reported, because they are considered too small. So be careful when you’re walking on the street.”
“Big Brother will get worse after the pandemic. In China, digital currency is emerging. Digital currency will be greater than paper money in ten years. Big Brother will emerge.”
“Big Brother is government control. Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc. -- these are all private companies, but if the government asks, they have to concede. Changing the law is all that is required. Due to the pandemic, laws are already changing. IT companies have to help the government. And they do deals, for example, with taxes. They cover each other in order to get information, without people knowing.”
“Probably for your generation, it will still be okay, but in 50-100 years, Big Brother will be a reality. There is no other way.”
Jean: Why is there no other way?
“Where is the other way? It’s not out of the realm of reality that another Trump will emerge. A second Trump will be Hitler. We have to be careful of it.”
“So far, you have been spared the worst. But discrimination is going to get worse for you guys. Because minorities are from all over, it is harder to unite.”
Jean: When the pandemic first began, you mentioned something to me about there being a BC and an AC... what did you mean by that?
“B.C. and A.D. is Before Christ and Anno Domini, or in the year of the Lord. B.C. and A.C. is Before Corona and After Corona. It means that 2020 marked a shift for humankind, the beginning of a new epoch… a lot of things will change.”
“Regarding details… I can’t remember what I told you. I would have to tell you over a drink, organically. Next time you are down, I will tell you.”
From,
Denny
Denny, Sunnie, or Jean — Denny and Sunnie are retired Korean American boomers who are also ex- husband and wife. Jean is their daughter.
PERspective #2: Delta
Dear Anne,
As I’ve been stewing on this question, turning it over in my mind, time and my mind-rubble have worn it smooth, into a similar question: what really matters? And how do we know what matters?
It’s been inevitable that the pandemic has been a learning experience. Many of us have been spending more time with ourselves, alone, than ever before; or perhaps we’ve been spending more time than ever before with family, or with the people closest to us, our best friends and partners. We’ve dealt with health challenges across the board, people close to us ill or potentially ill, people close to us dying.
The past year-plus has been a time of unease, stress, fear, grief, mourning; it’s also been a time of reflection. Those pre-pandemic life-elements that may have been unfolding on automatic—the hustle of work, the hustle of social interactions, the hustle of waking activity in general—were all put on pause. We’ve had time to think (if perhaps not room to think) about what really matters.
The mirror-image of your question would seem to be, what is the shape of life when it isn’t being molded by our interactions with people and places? How will we find a new barometer for what we prioritize?
I think we have to listen to that voice of the past year, the one that piped up to let us know what we were really missing and what was no big deal to leave behind. Do we like offices? Do we like packed social schedules? Do we like having people inside our homes, or do we like seeing them outside (and, ahem, rarely having to dust or clean up)? There are lots of things we did pre-pandemic because that was how we always did those things, but we’ve had enough of a breather from the old ways that each of us now has a chance to say how we want it to be in the new days.
To get to the steely heart of your question: Yes, there will be a change in how and what we prioritize in our daily lives after the pandemic. What really matters? I think that we will prioritize baking for each other—finally, we can share all those cookies with other people!—and that we will de-prioritize the wearing of jeans. They’re just not that comfortable! This year I learned that I could wear comfy clothes for a year straight, easy as pie. There’s no going back now!
Warmly,
Delta
Delta is a curious observer and dedicated student of humans and their intriguing ways.
perspective #3: Rose
Dear Anne,
I wrote one answer to your question, and now I am starting another from scratch. Here is where I am stuck—there is no Pandemic Experience from which to hypothesize about future priorities. There are people who lost mothers. There are people who held iPads to dying faces so loved ones could say goodbye. There are people who did that every night for months. There are people who are still sick, and who perhaps wonder if they always will be. There are people who long for touch, who have been physically alone these past 12+ months. And there are people like me, who feel almost wistful about the quarantine coming to an end.
Each one of us was ripped out of the Ratrace onto our own little islands, frozen in place at a random point in the trajectory of our lives. In that sense, I won the pandemic quarantine lottery. I live in an old farmhouse-style home with a man I love who makes sourdough bread and fresh pasta. Our two kids are old enough to largely entertain themselves but young enough not to hate us. At this particular time in my life, this particular little island not far from cornfields is the place in the world I most want to be.
I guess that is a very long way of saying, I cannot speak for anyone but myself. But you already knew that.
For me, this pandemic has reaffirmed preexisting beliefs—that we are all interdependent, whether we like it or not; that we need a healthy and functioning government at every level; that even globally-felt events manifest in strikingly unequal ways for different populations and different individuals. I think I emerge from this experience feeling more committed than ever to sowing whatever tiny seeds I can in the effort to bring out the best version of “us.” (And, of course, this experience was a brutal reminder of just how powerless each one of us really is to change things at scale. We have to remember that what is at an arm’s length matters, too.)
There have been some unexpected and pleasant discoveries along the way. It has been nice to see in the flesh that the Ratrace is not real life, that the busyness that can dissolve and life continues. Work time was always just time in the day. Hollywood was always just a group of creative people with power. Professional accolades were always just manufactured incentives to work harder. I guess what I am saying is, the pandemic reminded me how so much of our realities is a construction. There is a freedom in this that I am still coming to grips with, but it is what I want to take with me after the pandemic. We can make our own worlds.
Yours,
Rose
Rose is a gray haired and wise future version of one of the many middle-aged Sarahs in Flyover Country.